Three Years After October 7, How BDS And Israeli Product Boycott Reached Mainstream Consumers

Three years after Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed, boycotting Israeli products and companies linked to Israel has become part of consumer activism across the world. Products have been dropped from shopping baskets, restaurants have faced protests and multinational brands have been targeted over their operations, sponsorships or perceived support for Israel.

The boycott movement itself predates the Gaza war. The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was launched in 2005. What changed after October 7 was the reach of these campaigns, which moved beyond activist networks and into mainstream consumer choices.

In several markets, this translated into changes in purchasing behaviour and commercial pressure on businesses. Reuters reported that McDonald's, Starbucks and other international companies experienced sales or business impacts in Muslim-majority markets amid consumer boycotts linked to the Gaza war.

There is, however, no single “Israel boycott list”. BDS has its own targets, grassroots groups have launched separate campaigns, and organisations such as Who Profits and the UN human rights office maintain separate research or databases.

How does the boycott system work?

BDS is led by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, a coalition of Palestinian organisations. Its strategy is based on targeted pressure, rather than asking consumers to boycott every company that has any connection with Israel.

Its broader campaign calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, while its corporate strategy focuses on specific forms of alleged complicity rather than simply a company's identity or nationality.

BDS says it focuses on companies and products where it believes collective pressure has the greatest chance of producing a result. Its criteria include a company's alleged level of complicity, public profile, campaign potential and ability to connect with wider movements.

For its corporate campaigns, BDS distinguishes between consumer boycott priority targets, organic boycott targets and pressure targets. Consumer boycott priority targets are companies BDS directly asks consumers to boycott. Organic boycott targets are companies targeted by campaigns that BDS did not initiate but supports. Pressure targets can face lobbying, protests, advocacy and other forms of pressure.

BDS calls on consumers to boycott Israeli produce and other Israeli products sold in supermarkets, including fruit, vegetables and wine. BDS also says it supports boycotting and divesting from Israeli companies where they meet its stated criteria concerning involvement in the occupation and recognition of Palestinian rights.

In its December 2024 corporate-targeting guide, BDS lists Chevron, Intel, Dell, Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Carrefour, AXA, Reebok, Disney+, Teva, SodaStream and RE/MAX among its consumer boycott priority targets. The movement gives different reasons for targeting them, including alleged links to Israeli state, military or settlement infrastructure. These are BDS' own assessments and allegations.

From McDonald's to Puma and Reebok: how the campaigns reached consumers

Some of the brands most closely associated with the boycott movement fall into BDS' organic boycott category. They include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Burger King, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza and Wix. BDS says these campaigns were not initiated by the movement but that it supports them.

McDonald's became a major target after its Israeli franchise announced in October 2023 that it was providing free meals to Israeli soldiers. The move triggered boycott campaigns in several countries. In early 2024, McDonald's chief executive said several markets in the Middle East and some outside the region had experienced a “meaningful business impact” from the conflict and associated misinformation. McDonald's later bought the Israeli franchise operation.

The campaigns also moved beyond organised activist circles. Reuters reported that consumer boycotts linked to the Gaza war affected businesses in several Muslim-majority countries, with Starbucks' Middle East franchisee planning more than 2,000 job cuts amid difficult trading conditions it attributed in part to boycotts. Coca-Cola's bottler also reported an impact from boycotts in Egypt.

Puma had been targeted by the Boycott PUMA campaign since 2018, when 215 Palestinian sports teams called on the company to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA). Puma announced in December 2023 that it would not renew the sponsorship, which expired at the end of 2024. Puma said the decision had been made in 2022 as part of its “fewer-bigger-better” strategy and was unrelated to the boycott campaign. BDS, meanwhile, says its five-year campaign helped force Puma to end the sponsorship.

After Puma, Erreà signed a two-year sponsorship agreement with the IFA in August 2024 and was due to replace Puma from January 2025. Erreà subsequently withdrew from the agreement without supplying jerseys, with BDS attributing the decision to growing boycott pressure. Reebok then signed a two-year sponsorship deal with the IFA in early 2025. BDS subsequently called for a boycott of Reebok, making it the campaign's next major sportswear target.

The sequence became Puma → Erreà → Reebok. It illustrates how campaigners can shift their focus when a company leaves and another enters the same relationship.

Reebok's sponsorship also produced a further dispute. In September 2025, reports said Reebok had asked for its logo to be removed from Israel's national-team shirts. Reebok denied that, telling Reuters the reports were untrue and saying it remained committed to its relationship with the IFA. The IFA also confirmed that Reebok's logo would remain on the kits.

By 2026, the sponsorship picture had changed again. The IFA's website identifies Aura as the new main sponsor of the Israeli national teams.

Who is calling for the boycotts?

The BDS National Committee is the principal Palestinian coalition leading the global BDS movement, but it is not responsible for every boycott list circulating online. Grassroots groups have launched individual campaigns, some of which BDS later supports.

Organisations such as the American Friends Service Committee and Who Profits research companies' alleged links to Israel's military, occupation and settlement economy.

The UN human rights office has a separate role. It maintains a database of businesses involved in specified activities connected to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Reuters reported in September 2026 that the UN had added 61 companies to the database, taking the total to 214 businesses from 11 countries. Inclusion can lead to calls for economic pressure, including boycott and divestment, but being included in the UN database is not the same as being a BDS target.

Three years after October 7, the boycott landscape has expanded beyond organised activist campaigns into everyday consumer choices. BDS remains the main Palestinian-led movement, but its targets exist alongside grassroots campaigns, calls to boycott Israeli products and separate corporate databases maintained by other organisations.

The commercial impact of individual boycotts can be difficult to isolate, but businesses including McDonald's, Starbucks and Coca-Cola have reported or experienced pressure in markets where boycott campaigns gained traction. For consumers trying to make sense of the lists, the key question is not simply whether a company appears on one, but who has called for action, what kind of action has been requested, and what evidence or allegations form the basis of that campaign.